The many scenes shot with handheld cameras made me feel like I was tagging along with these kids, whether on an ill-fated vacation to Okinawa or an assault on one of their classmates.

The handhelds really did manage to draw me in further than I would have been otherwise. I felt like I was actual witness to some of the events in the movie, but was ultimately powerless-as Yuichi often is-to affect any of it. On the OTHER hand, 'All About Lily Chou Chou' is essentially plotless.

The only constant throughout is the teen's fascination with Lily and their anonymous online rants about what her music means to them. It's a very tenuous thread, and the film's climax is minimized to near-inconsequence by a myriad of other things going on. The climax isn't really a climax at all, just another bump on these kids' road to maturity and adulthood. It doesn't have near the impact I'm guessing the filmakers wanted it to have.